Coaching or Therapy

It is important to make the distinction between therapy and coaching. They are not competitive approaches to life challenges but rather complimentary methods to resolve issues and engage in personal growth. Generally speaking, therapy with its roots in psychiatry and medicine is designed more for individuals or couples who are experiencing difficulties that are significantly impacting their day to day living and whose treatment might require medication interventions as well as talk therapy. Coaching deals with the present and future and is solution focused. Goal setting, creating action plans, skill enhancement and cheerleading are at the heart of the coaching process which is usually more short term than therapy. It is certainly reasonable for a couple to be engaging in therapy as individuals or as a couple before or during couples coaching.

How is Relationship Coaching Different from Traditional Marriage Therapy?

• Coaching works to move people to a higher level of functioning rather than emotional healing.
• Marriage therapy focuses more on past issues and feelings than on the present and future.
• Marriage therapy deals with married couples experiencing serious emotional distress. In therapy there is an assumption that the client needs healing while coaching assumes the client is whole.
• Marriage therapy sessions often do not provide sufficient time to devote to relationship education, skill building and the seeking of external solutions to issues.
• Between 38% & 50% of couples who engage in traditional marriage therapy get divorced after two years
• Marriage therapists are usually either a male or female creating a potential gender barrier for at least one party.